Newbie Graphic Designer

Looking For Some Direction

Published on January 24, 2005 By dcving In Requests

Hi all,

I'm a Freshman at Belhaven College in Jackson, MS. I went into Computer Science last semester and decided that was not the route I wanted to take. So I have recently enrolled into Graphic Design in hopes that I could express my creative imagination on a very broad canvas. Anyway, I just wanted to ask for some general ideas to enlighten me on the subject and potential career opportunities, and maybe a few hints and pointers to get me started as a newbie graphic designer. My e-mail address is DCVING18@yahoo.com, or just reply to my post. Thanks alot!

Comments (Page 2)

Jafo

on Feb 07, 2005

All forms of visual 'art' imagery 2 dimensional replication of an object or idea requires DESIGN.

There is an equal requirement for layout composition in a newspaper advertisement, a picture book, comic, or where to stick the smile on the Mona Lisa.

Never closet yourself, or your thinking to within one medium or sphere of creative design.

You will be doomed to obscurity brought on by sameness of thought with all those other efluvia of the education machine.

You will learn more about graphic art by seeing the beauty and innocence in a child's face than you EVER will spelling 'beauty and innocence' right with the correct font and point size....

wstaylor

on Feb 07, 2005

horiz0n are you from New Albany, Indiana???

Jafo

on Feb 07, 2005

OK...bottom line...

Ya wanna be a groovy Graphic Designer for an advertising co?

Buy some collarless shirts...tie your 'long' hair in a pony tail ..... say 'wow' a lot.

Ignore history, or any related visual art field in peril of your death.

TELL your client 'yes, it is confrontational but any publicity is good publicity...so what if it's racist/sexist?'

Lie to them that you did NOT plagiarise it from elsewhere....but if you did, no-one buys that mag, anyway...and besides you gave them a discount.

Drink too much...it compensates for creative juices drying up.

Swearing is good...it's so 'now'.

'Now' is good, too...cos it's not 'then'.

Better still...get a real education...learn about all visual art to a reasonable level...and if you can't stomach all that creativity...become a street sweeper....you'll get to look at the 'Graphic design' on the papers in the gutter.

andr3ww

on Feb 07, 2005

Art is whatever whoever is looking at whatever deems to be whatever they see whatever to be, not in whoever's eyes, but their own.

ie. The pile of clean clothes on my floor could be art, but I'm pretty sure that I'm just being lazy.

I reference the simpson's episode where homer botches a grill, and creates junk... err art.

horiz0n

on Feb 07, 2005

There's a pretty big difference between designing buildings, and designing layouts for marketing and advertising. This isn't design in general, this is "graphic design" specifically and while I might not be able to claim 33 years of working with buildings, I can definetly claim 5 years experience in THIS field, and 2 years experience employed as a GRAPHIC DESIGNER. And if all you think about is font and point size, then you're still thinking in terms of type not being important and just slapping it on the page.

Does the phrase "actions speak louder than words" ring a bell?

Or perhaps "If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?"

Your opinion on "being a groovy graphic designer" is like a pseudo-doctor giving medical advice without having any real credentials.

and I'm from and employed in Louisville, New Albany is a few minutes away.

Watson

on Feb 07, 2005

I want that refrigerator.

Jafo

on Feb 07, 2005

The myopia that is endemic with this outlook pre-supposes that Architecture in no way encompasses graphic design.

Were you to actually study Architecture [the course, not the buildings] you'd find a whole swag of included subjects. from Sociology to Life Drawing....AND, shock-horror.... Graphic Design, Sciagraphy, Technical Drawing, Rendering, Modelling, ad nauseum.

Text [if that is what pre-occupies you] is another design element, but it is only one.

It can be incorporated in the oldest visual imagery...eg Tattooing, or in anything done since....BUT it is one 'design element' within a myriad of others.

I repeat....ALL art is Graphic Design.

However..

All Graphic Design is not necessarily 'artistic'.

There is a difference.

Anyone wishing to get anywhere in the field of publishing design, advertising, logo creation.....graphic design...call it what you will...will be at a total disadvantage if they do not look beyond the end of their noses.

wstaylor

on Feb 07, 2005

I am from New Albany as well

Matchbook

on Feb 07, 2005

horiz0n

on Feb 07, 2005

To break down that "ostentatious"

rambling:

All art is graphic design?
So what is the Mona Lisa adverting to or selling? Polident? Crest? Herbal Essences? Does the cracks in the paint signify that she should use skin lotion? Could you put a picture of the Sistine Chapel on a page in a magazine and expect anyone to understand what you're trying to convey? "WOW here's a pair of pants", but who the hell makes them? "Look at this picture of some gnarly new motorcycle." Thats awesome who makes it, where can I get one, are they out yet, can I even afford it? "Jeez, I don't know, it's just a picture."

You will learn more about graphic art by seeing the beauty and innocence in a child's face than you EVER will spelling 'beauty and innocence' right with the correct font and point size...

A picture is worth a thousand words, and the audience needs to know which one of those 1000 is actually IMPORTANT.

People need to know why the hell they're looking at an innocent childs face. Whats the point? Are trying to show something as being innocent in general? Are you trying to target parents specifically?

What kind of type do you use here? The words itself "beauty and innocence" won't match up to the picture, BUT you can show beauty and innocence using type without ever using those words at all. Whats the point of having a picture of innocent looking child if you put big gaudy bold square text on it. They totally conflict with each other. You have to keep in mind what is that child going to do to people? Will parents stop to look at it? Will teens? Will men as opposed to women? Did you even put it in the right magazine in the first place? Does a Kotex ad belong in Maxim magazine? Does a billboard for John Deere farm and tractor equipment belong on the streets of Ney York city? Hell no, and decisions like that are just as much part of the graphic design process as anything else.

Type isn't my fixation, but I'll argue indefinetly it's importance is beyond just words on a page. You wanna break it down to basics, you generally have two parts to an advertisement, you USUALLY have an image, you ALWAYS have type. If you're saying text pre-occupies me you're saying I'm the only one that see's its importance, good luck arguing that.

Just because the position Graphic Designer has the word graphic in it doesn't mean it falls back on only being important by means of art.

Further more, this isn't a debate on what the term means, it's definition is clear, and no amount of tossing words around will change it. This topic IS about A person wanting advice and help in the field of Graphic Design, what are you trying to tell him? He picked the wrong major? Fine Arts is more important than Graphic Design when it comes to being a Graphic Designer?

Jafo

on Feb 07, 2005

This topic IS about A person wanting advice and help in the field of Graphic Design, what are you trying to tell him? He picked the wrong major?

Citizen dcving ....just don't take the opinion of one individual as gospel. Real creative vision only comes when you pull your head out of the sand and look around you. Graphic Design is a hell of a lot more than what 'appears' to be in a certain person's 'college major'.

Or maybe it isn't. Maybe that's why Graphic design in the media is so cliche'd and trite.

OK...I'll just butt out here. Clearly Master horiz0n has a wealth of experience and is the final word on "Graphic Design", and all entities before and since his emergence are both inferior and wrong, as is their opinion/experience and education.

I needs must bow to the 5 long years of lucid illumination re graphics because I obviously learned nothing in my 33 ....I must have been down the pub....

MadDeez

on Feb 07, 2005

shawn, you're from new albany, huh? you're close to being a foreigner then. kentucky is a seperate country, as you know. maybe that explains the lapses of weirdness you seem to experience on occasion

good thing i like ya, huh?

horiz0n

on Feb 07, 2005

Being in the military one's entire life, doesn't make one a war hero.

horiz0n

on Feb 07, 2005

Anyway, I've argued my case about as well as possible, so I don't think I need to say much more in proving my point. But as far proving my "worth", as it seemed to turn into, I don't need to do that by being arrogantly condescending and slanderous. Nor do I need to insult the field of design with a groundless, vitriolic diatribe, only to defend the very thing I just bashed in the next sentence I write. I was never real good at arguing with myself anyway.

Jafo

on Feb 07, 2005

No, but being in the military one's entire life might just mean you know which end of a rifle the 'bang' comes out of.

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